RT Conference Proceedings
T1 Mechanochemistry for a smart and sustainable biodiesel production under heterogeneous catalysis
A1 Malpartida-García, Irene
A1 Maireles-Torres, Pedro Jesús
A1 Lair, Valentin
A1 Halloumi, Samy
A1 Thiel, Julien
A1 Lacoste, François
K1 Biocombustible
AB Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) produced from vegetable oil by transesterification, labeled as ‘‘Biodiesel”, is industrially accomplished in the presence of a homogeneous basic catalyst, such as alkali hydroxide or methoxide dissolved in methanol. This process requires a large excess of methanol (methanol:oil molar ratio> 6), temperature around 60 ºC and 1-2 h of reaction. However, this process suffers from important drawbacks: low FFA and water tolerance, generation of process wastewater, etc. To overcome them, different approaches have been proposed: such as the use of heterogeneous catalysis, CO2 under supercritical conditions or enzymes; coupled to microwave and ultrasonics systems as an alternative to conventional heating. Among all the researches, heterogeneous catalysts show potential in the transesterification reaction. Unlike homogeneous catalysts, heterogeneous ones are environmentally benign and can be reused and regenerated. Nevertheless, higher catalyst loading and alcohol:oil molar ratio are required for biodiesel production in the presence of solid catalysts.A new mechanochemical reactor is used for the transesterification reaction to promotes the reactants mixing, minimizing mass transfer limitations associated to the inmiscibility of reactants. This solution allows to reduce the methanol need to an amount close to the stoichiometry (methanol:oil molar ratio= 4:1), and at room temperature after less than one minute, more than 90 wt% FAME is reached. Glycerol, obtained as by-product in the transesterification reaction is used to prepare calcium diglyceroxide by mechanosynthesis, and is used as heterogeneous catalyst. A new and more efficient mechanochemical synthesis of FAME is proposed, with shorter reaction and lower temperature, compared to other synthesis proposed in literature.
YR 2018
FD 2018-09-10
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/16425
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/16425
LA eng
NO Universidad de Málaga.Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 24 ene 2026